Make Your Own 3D Printer
29 Apr 11
Tech heads everywhere will be drooling at the prospect of putting one of these together in their garage. An open source project in the US is now making a DIY 3D printer a reality. In what is true personal manufacturing, you can purchase a DIY kit, or download the open source specs, software and drawings to build your own 3D printer in your workshop.
Not intended to replace commercial 3D printers, MakerBot have produced the Thing-O-Matic with the aim of making a very basic 3D printer affordable, and to make it possible for techies to gain an understanding of how the machines work. For those wanting to 'play around' with 3D printers and learn how they work and how to use them, these DIY models may be the answer. Most of all, these machines are a bit of fun and could be construed as the ultimate Mechano set!
Being open source, users of the machines can freely adapt them to produce anything they want and there are some novel applications being developed such as the 'EggBot' which produces a novelty egg with an omlette recipe printed on the side.
Full details of the Thing-O-Matic are available on the MakerBot website at: www.makerbot.com The site has a complete online store for kits and parts as well as a user forum, blog and videos of the 3D printing machines in action.
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